It's thought that the turtles are suffocating in shrimp nets set by illegal shrimp trawlers who fail to use mandatory turtle-excluder devices, despite legal protection of sea turtles and tough jail sentences for killing or trapping them. Even in the Gahirmatha (Marine) Wildlife Sanctuary, where controls on illegal fishing are tight, hundreds of turtles are killed each year.

Other threats to marine turtles globally include overhunting, development of beaches where they nest and destruction of their feeding habitat. In Orissa,pollution from factory effluent may pose a new threat.